Before leaving Czecheri, Adrian and the band went to the guild store and bought one emergency ration with the two spare copper they had. The party must finish one of the two quests they had picked up or they would spend the day without any food.

As expected, nobody asked about Adrian’s glasses. He still didn’t know why that didn’t attract foreign attention, but he had more important questions to take care of. The trio went back to the camping site, twenty minutes were enough to make all the way back. Adrian gave the rest who stayed the quests’ papers.

“So, we are going to exterminate an insects’ nest.” Mike commented after reading both quests.

“Basically.” Adrian responded.

“Do, we have any plan?” Mike said as he passed the papers to Axel.

“That’s what we are going to talk about,” Adrian explained while sitting on a nearby rock. “I don’t have a plan yet, but I am worried about you and Kayle. Aby, Dale, and Axel have [Tarot] cards and I have a class and extra [Skills], while you two are the same as you started.”

Mike’s face became grim. “I know it, but what we can do?”

“I have an idea, it only applies to you, though,” Adrian told Mike. “You need to insta-kill an enemy.”

“But I already did that.” Mike justified. “As a matter of fact, I was the first one to insta-kill an enemy and the first to ever kill one.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Adrian said calmly as Mike’s tone was a bit disturbed. “But you need to do it alone just like I did.”

“Alone? How I will do that?” Mike exclaimed alarmed.

“Calm down, boy,” Adrian said. “I am telling you to snipe a mantis from a safe distance, not to kamikaze into the lair.”

“I just need to snipe one?” As Mike talked, Adrian nodded.

“Come with me, Mike,” Adrian said as he stood up. “We are going to find a mantis and you are going to kill it alone.” Mike followed Adrian without complaining. “You can try to devise a plan while we are out.” Adrian told the group.

“Sure,” Aby told him. “Just, be careful.”

Adrian and Mike marched into the woods in order to force the unlocking of a new [Skill], whether it was [Assassinate] or a new one.

The duo found a group of two mantises, they could have let them go because it wasn’t their objective, but free experience was free experience. Adrian decapitated one using his two-skill combo and Mike sniped the last one that had Adrian’s focus after killing its partner. Both, Adrian and Mike, got 50% contribution as they killed a mantis each one. Adrian made a note to himself to bring the food sack if he was going to hunt. He was wasting the quest’s rewards this way.

“How much experience you need to level up to five?” Adrian asked his partner.

“About 400.” Mike responded as he retrieved his arrow.

“You will level up once we start the lair quest.” Adrian comforted him. “I am two thirds away from level six if you wanted to know.”

After a three-minute and fifty-six-second walk, Adrian and Mike found their prey. It was both useful and a bit creepy to Adrian that he could tell exactly the time relative to him with his new [Ultimum Celeritas].

“What should I do?” Mike was nervous even though he had killed alone a mantis only four minutes ago. The feeling of being totally alone in a fight overwhelmed him.

“I am no archer,” Adrian started. “But focus its weak points: neck, heart, head… I don’t care which one. Just tense your string and have a clear objective. Let it go once you think it’s the right time.”

“Okay.” Mike stated simply.

“I will walk away in case the Record detects you are at a party,” Adrian said. “Worry not, I will still keep an eye on you and rush if things go south.

“Thank you.” Mike told Adrian, his shaking was appeased and slowly fade away.

Mike waited thirty straight seconds without moving, securing his shot. He couldn’t see where Adrian was, as he vanished into the shadows. In reality, Adrian was a hundred meters away, in sprint position, ready to intervene if Mike got nervous again.

Without any more delay, Mike let the string go, his arrow flying away, beelining towards the mantis. The monster noticed the vibrations in the air and turned his head, which sentenced it as the arrow penetrated further than it should have. The projectile flew across the insect’s head, sinking in the bark of a tree. The mantis body fell to the ground.

After reading the air, Mike cried out. “Yeah! Oh, yeah, baby!” He celebrated with ecstasy.

“Well done.” Adrian congratulated him after appearing from the woods. “Did you get an [Skill]?”

“Yes!” Mike confirmed happily and then explained it. “Congratulations! For stealthily executing your foe with a fatal headshot, you have obtained a new skill.” Mike breathed and then read the [Skill] description. “[Bullseye]: When aiming for a vital point, your attack damage will triplicate after consuming mild mental power.

‘Similar to [Assassinate] but better in some ways.’ Adrian thought and later talked to Mike. “That’s a nice [Skill], but we should go back.”

“Right.” Mike told briefly, but he couldn’t hide his joy.

Before reuniting with the party, Adrian cut the mantis left arms in order to cross off the list one of the thirty arms needed to fulfill the quest.

Adrian talked back to Mike as it seemed they still had sometime before they reached the campfire. “Your [Title] for maxing [Voluntat] didn’t give you any growth boost like us, right?”

“Yeah.” Mike responded. “It is called [Unwavering Will] and makes me immune to mental or soul attacks, but no extra growth to [Voluntat].”

“Mike,” Adrian told the archer beside him. “You should assign points towards [Destretza]. No, yet.” Adrian added as he saw Mike moving his finger through the air. “Wait you have unassigned points?”

“Eh… yes.” He said in defeat. “I didn’t know if I should assign points to [Voluntat] as I didn’t have the same advantages as all you do. So, I save them after I got a class.”

“That’s fantastic, Mike!” Adrian congratulated him. “There are classes that give stats boosts, so you will have, without a doubt, a class that boosts [Destretza] and [Voluntat]. Save the points, then you will have more total stats than we will do.”

“Okay.” Mike replied.

“Oh,” Adrian added. “And don’t select Tarot Confidant when you reach level five, it may look tasty, but I have a feeling that you will obtain your [Tarot] card when the time is right.”

And with that, Mike and Adrian came back to the party.